Chapter 56
Chapter 56
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 56
Chapter Title: VER.P.NULL Game Capsule Update
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"Get up already, stop slacking off. Uncle Lee Yoo-hyun's meeting the association president right now."
Lee Sae-byeok poked at the recumbent Seol Do-yoon. He'd been sick all morning, but now that he was finally recovering, he lay there blinking idly at the ceiling.
Static crackled harshly from the speaker of the tampered bugging device.
"I stuck a bug on Uncle Lee Yoo-hyun's clothes, but I can't hear anything. Fix it for me."
"What about the potato chips?"
"I gave them to him, so get up and fix it."
Abandoning his blank stare, Seol Do-yoon sat up and reached for the chocolate bar Lee Sae-byeok had brought him.
He brushed off the few ants clinging to the chocolate bar and picked up the fallen ones, handing them to Lee Sae-byeok.
"Lee Sae-byeok, say ahh. It's the protein you need."
"I'll kill you. Cut the weird talk and fix the bug if you can."
Lee Sae-byeok took the ants from Seol Do-yoon and dropped them back into their container.
Meanwhile, Seol Do-yoon sliced off the dirty parts of the chocolate bar with a utility knife and popped them into his mouth, chewing away.
"I've fixed it. But this isn't a bug problem."
"Then what's the issue?"
"The association president's office is now bug-proof. He just installed an anti-eavesdropping device recently. I just remembered."
"Tch. So that's what those electronics guys brought in boxes last time."
"I didn't see it, but probably."
"No more intel from bugs, huh. I thought it was too easy."
Seol Do-yoon sliced the chocolate bar into nano-sized pieces and handed them to Lee Sae-byeok. She dropped the bits into the ant container.
If he hadn't collapsed, he could've figured out a way to eavesdrop.
Muttering to himself, Seol Do-yoon grabbed his thermos and took a sip of water.
Lee Sae-byeok, who had been watching the ants, turned to look at him.
Seol Do-yoon rummaged noisily and pulled a ziplock bag from under the bed. Inside was a broken smartphone.
"You got a burner phone?"
"Yeah, I'll fix it up quick."
Seol Do-yoon pulled out a pile of phone parts from under the bed and repaired it with practiced ease.
"You too, hand yours over."
Lee Sae-byeok fetched a plastic bag from the drawer and passed it to him—her broken burner.
"Trash straight from the association."
What Lee Sae-byeok had procured were devices the association had developed, failed, or broken, and were set for disposal.
With her naturally flexible and strong body, sneaking in to grab stuff was a breeze for her. That's why she often brought things like this to Seol Do-yoon for a fee.
"How do you fix all this stuff? No one taught you."
"Not hard for me."
"Ugh, that's so annoying."
"I'm not bragging—it's literal."
Dodging details, Seol Do-yoon just smiled silently.
"What if you awaken as a fabricator like Uncle Lee Yoo-hyun?"
"Fabricator sounds good, but he snagged the A-rank spot, so less appeal. I prefer quieter abilities."
Seol Do-yoon finished one of the shelved projects.
It was a pair of sunglasses.
He fiddled with them briefly, then tried them on.
"...What're you doing?"
"Sunglasses that show latent abilities."
Seol Do-yoon scanned the room through the lenses, then looked at Lee Sae-byeok.
Crack!
The sunglasses overheated instantly, shattering the display.
"Pfft. What, it breaks right away? Mechanic debut not even here and you're already obsolete, Seol Do-yoon."
"Obsolete from a noob? High praise."
Gathering the shattered parts into the plastic bag, Seol Do-yoon smiled.
'...Man, she's a real monster.'
The device had worked perfectly.
Honestly, he'd be jealous as hell if she got stronger than him, but he was still excited about her post-awakening powers. Her base combat sense was sharp, her physical stats top-notch—she could become one-of-a-kind.
Though with her trauma, whether she'd want to keep hunting was questionable.
Seol Do-yoon rummaged through the bag again, past the sunglasses.
He found something and grinned brightly.
"What's with that creepy smile?"
"Broken CCTV disruptor."
"That'll come in handy this time."
"Right?"
* * *
Lee Nam-soo, the CCTV control room manager, was munching on a KrisX cream donut with his coffee.
Static. Static...
Suddenly, camera 4 glitched, the screen blurring.
"What the—?"
The noisy camera flickered back to normal after a brief disruption.
Judging it a simple malfunction, the man shrugged and took another bite of his donut.
* * *
At that moment, Lee Yoo-hyun sat on the leather sofa in the association president's office. Meaningless self-introductions and chit-chat flew back and forth. How he'd survived, what monsters he'd hunted in the simulation and how.
Then Lee Yoo-hyun cautiously voiced one of the items from the note.
Namely, getting access to the restricted zone off-limits to non-admin staff.
"Could I possibly visit the off-limits zone for non-admin personnel?"
The association president, slurping his hot chrysanthemum tea like soup, raised one eyebrow.
"What? You want to go that far, into the off-limits zone?"
"Yes. I'd like to tour the overall hunter facilities and check out the projects the association's working on."
"Well, that might be tricky. See, Yoo-hyun, you're still just part-time, so sharing association secrets is iffy."
"But the part-time contract already has a confidentiality clause, right?"
"Eh, true, but still."
This guy's probing slyly.
The president, his unshaven jaw rough, stroked it.
"I've done some personal research. Unlike overseas where hunter activity is ramping up, our country's hunters are still low-key. Beyond fewer gates, there must be other reasons, right?"
"Our hunters are quiet because the current president's covering up big incidents during his term? That's why I'm bummed too. Didn't you see the media calling gate openings 'accidents'?"
Just as Seol Do-yoon had scripted on the note—blame the government.
No matter the topic, act like we're on the same side?
"Actually, I already know everything."
"Know what?"
"That thing you're hiding. You know."
Ah, screwed. He doesn't know jack.
Lee Yoo-hyun clenched his fists to hide his trembling hands.
Why'd Seol Do-yoon spill everything but skip the association's real dirt?
It felt off.
He knew he was being used—Seol Do-yoon had goals too—but he wouldn't say what he wanted.
Too specific for no agenda, though.
Despite the suspicion, Lee Yoo-hyun helped because Seol Do-yoon had aided with Ra-hee stuff, and he always looked so exhausted and sickly—it worried him.
"Ah, so that's why you've been subtly on guard."
Guess the trembling showed. Lee Yoo-hyun forced a smile to mask it.
"You know about the kids the association's raising, right? Sometimes they spout nonsense to visitors. Trying to scam sympathy votes to do whatever."
There'd been a few busts where test subject kids approached visitors and tried talking.
Time to discipline those brats.
Watching the president laugh it off, Lee Yoo-hyun felt a chill down his neck. A hypothesis clicked.
"Ah, I was hoping that was true. Maybe I could help. I haven't revealed my fabrication ability yet—I'd like to show and explain it."
"You hoped it was true? Puhaha, you're bolder than you look. What, got some personal experiments you wanna run?"
"Yes, plenty."
"Makes sense for a fabricator. But nothing special, so don't get too bummed."
The president stood, leading Lee Yoo-hyun along.
To the off-limits zone he'd wanted.
Children's vigorous shouts echoed from inside.
"See? Nothing special. Just training kids like a normal education center."
"What's the difference between the outdoor training rooms and the ones in the restricted zone?"
"We train 'em against monsters at special forces intensity. Don't want complaints about being too harsh on kids, so basic fighting's outside, real boot camp's separate. It's tough but safety-checked, so don't think weird of it. We're not some vicious group—more like hidden justice squad, kekeke."
The president slung an arm casually around Lee Yoo-hyun's shoulder, laughing.
Lee Yoo-hyun eyed the zone suspiciously. It was disappointingly ordinary, as claimed.
"So, what can you make?"
"That mana gauge over there, and the hunter game capsules—I could stabilize them."
"Really?"
"Yeah. And somehow, I feel like I could do something to people themselves."
Seol Do-yoon's needle marks, excessive security, unapproved association drugs claiming completed clinical trials.
Probing the president based on his hypothesis from the clues. The president widened his eyes and burst into laughter.
"You're gutsier than you seem, puhaha! So, like, you could make half-machine, half-human Terminators?"
"Not sure, but trying it out would confirm."
Lee Yoo-hyun's gaze hardened at the reaction.
"Mind if I drop by for experiments? Could you issue me access? I already signed the formal hunter contract."
"You're efficient—I like it. Let's work hard to make our hunters world strongest. Got a 7 PM meeting, so I'll head out—you take it easy here~"
Seol Do-yoon had specifically noted the restricted zone access—and it worked.
"Look around freely," the president said, leaving Lee Yoo-hyun in the off-limits zone.
'Where's the cactus pot?'
The secret spot behind the large cactus pot Seol Do-yoon mentioned.
Around 1 AM, when people clocked out, the zone would empty.
Spotting the cactus, Lee Yoo-hyun loitered nearby casually.
"Yoo-hyun? What're you doing?"
"Oh, uh, where's the awakening simulator server room? Thought I could update it—got clearance from the president."
A staffer working in the zone asked; Lee Yoo-hyun smiled naturally and drifted from the cactus.
The staffer led him to the server room. Past several sealed steel doors, it appeared.
Repairable devices mostly glowed. Entering, Lee Yoo-hyun's jaw dropped.
The whole server room blazed with bright light.
Pulling the Nina Pinta update recipe via skill, Lee Yoo-hyun eyed the long list and sighed deeply.
Hardware Recipe
Plastic 1kg
-Quick Raw Material Fabrication (Download to use)
Unify Screws 35 pcs
Meter Screws 12 pcs
...
Software Recipe
Pre-knowledge Download
Update Tool Product Number:
"What a ton of stuff."
No assigned tasks or real work, so pretending to be busy with updates till 1 AM should let him stick around.